In the beginning the world, Earth (Elohino) was a round ball of water.
The land base that was developed for Ani'Yun'wiya, the "Principal People",
was Turtle (Salitsule) Island (Amayeli) now referred to as North America.
The story is told of ropes being hooked to four different locations of
the Island and then secured in the upper world, just for assurance that
the Island would not sink in the great waters.

The universe is believed to be made up of three worlds, the upper
(peaceful - color yellow), the lower (chaos - Earths core, orange/brown),
and the center, (here where we are now - color green), to be kept in
balance between the peaceful - upper and the chaotic - lower words).
These are three of the seven sacred directions.

The Ani'Yun'wiya lived by the clan system. This system was not only part
of the government structure, but also a part of family structure and
deemed who one could marry and could not marry. The mothers side was
used to trace the family. The clan system is still used today by the
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. This system seems to help greatly in
balancing government powers and seemingly helps to give all a say in
community concerns.

There are six major ceremonies that are observed yearly, held during the
year depending upon the number of moons occurring in that year, twelve
or thirteen. A seventh ceremony occurs every seven years.

The Ani'Yun'wiya are now best known as the Cherokee, the English
version of the word Tsalagi, a Creek word meaning either people
of another language or cave dwellers.

Cherokee Language Pronunciation guide:

Vowel sounds:
A (as in Father or short as in Rival)
E (as A in Mate, or short as in Met)
I (as I in Pique or short as in Pin)
O (as in Note, as approaching to AW in law)
U (as OO in Moon or short as in Pull)
V (as U in but, nasalized - guttural deep in the throat)

Consonant sounds:
G (hard sound - sometimes approaching K before E,I,O,U and v)
D (between the English D and T)
All other letters as in English.
? (signifies a pause)

[**Note: The Cherokee words used in this document are Qualla dialect
unless otherwise indicated. The principal difference between the Qualla
and Western dialect is the "TSI" symbol. Qualla dialect is more toward a
"Z" sound, the Western dialect toward a "CH" sound.]